Professors' Pay In Florida Ranks Near Bottom

TALLAHASSEE — Professors at Florida's public universities are among the nation's lowest paid, a new study shows, making them easy prey for raids by out-of-state universities.

Florida ranks 42nd in average salary for its faculty - down from 35th a year ago and 33rd two years ago - in a study compiled by the American Association of University Professors.

A decade ago, the state university system ranked in the top 25 percent in professor salaries, Chancellor Charles Reed said.

The reason for the drop? While other states have increased financing for higher education, Florida's tax-conscious Legislature allots only 7 percent of the state's general revenue to higher education, down from 11 percent a decade ago.

Faculty members received a 3 percent raise this year - their first increase in three years.

"I have watched my standard of living steadily drop," said Kris Anderson, United Faculty of Florida president. "In many ways, my discretionary income was higher when I was a graduate student than it is today."

Anderson, a Florida Atlantic University sociology professor who has been at the Boca Raton school since 1980, makes $35,000.

The average salary for a Florida professor is $43,581. New Jersey's professors are the highest paid at $64,790 and South Dakota's are the lowest paid at $36,712, the study said.

State officials did not know the exact number of professors lost, but FAU officials said seven top faculty members had accepted other jobs recently.

"We've lost several outstanding women and minority faculty members over the past two years who have accepted pay increases between 30 and 50 percent elsewhere," said FAU President Anthony Catanese, who ordered a study to determine which professors have left and why. "We have lousy salaries here in Florida."

Catanese said a highly regarded English professor left FAU last year after being offered a 50 percent pay increase, moving expenses and a reduced-rate mortgage, and a biology professor was lured away by an offer of a hefty pay boost and an updated lab. He declined to name the professors.

"We make counteroffers to try to keep them, but we can't compete," Catanese said. "If we try to match the offer, we end up with associate professors making more money than full professors and then we face a whole new set of problems."

Reed offered a plan on Thursday that he said would reverse the salary slide. The plan calls for annual 5 percent pay increases to faculty members above any pay raises provided to state employees by the state Legislature over the next four years.

This plan, which would need approval by state legislators, would gradually improve professors' pay without harming other university priorities, Reed said.

"We are competing in a national marketplace for faculty," Reed said. "We recognize [low pay) is a problem in attracting new faculty to Florida and keeping our good faculty here."

Reed's plan received approval by the finance committee of the Board of Regents and is expected to win endorsement by the full board today.

FAU's Anderson said the plan would provide a needed morale boost to professors whose pay has failed to keep pace with the cost of living.